On a scale of 0-10 what do you prefer?

[Humppa]

Hi guys!

I prefer my knives to 5 - 7. I don´t really mind about half stops. Never opened a knife with any nail. I always use to open it with my fingers - no nails are neede.

Kind regards
Andi

 

[Will Power]

I like them strong 7-8.5 never broken a nail but felt it move....prefer without half-stops as I like a un-impededed opening.

Dislike soft sprung knives, if I want something that opens with ease then a friction folder, Opinel or modern one handed is the type to go for. If it has a spring it should be a good tough one! Some of this does depend on handle shape, type of blade and this is key, position and depth of nail nick. Some alleged Bear-traps are tougher than they should be due to poorly positioned or struck nail nick.

Regards, Will

 

[ndeezl]

I like them strong 7-8.5 never broken a nail but felt it move....prefer without half-stops as I like a un-impededed opening.

Dislike soft sprung knives, if I want something that opens with ease then a friction folder, Opinel or modern one handed is the type to go for. If it has a spring it should be a good tough one! Some of this does depend on handle shape, type of blade and this is key, position and depth of nail nick. Some alleged Bear-traps are tougher than they should be due to poorly positioned or struck nail nick.

Regards, Will

I think that's a great point Will. I'll add that if I can pinch a blade open without using a nail nick I prefer a stiffer spring.

Nathan

 

[2Dead]

On most knives I prefer about a 4-7. Also, I guess I'm weird in that I find it easier to hold the knife in my left hand and open it with my right thumbnail. I'm a righty and my right hand thumb is stronger

 

[knarfeng]

I like a softer pull. If a Victorinox is ~5, then I like a 3-5. I don't like struggling with sharp objects.

• Buck 301's are usually just about right for me. Got some snap to the blade, but I don't have to struggle.
• The Case knives I own or have tried are usually in the ballpark as well.
• Most of my Camillus blades are also good to go.
• I've never come across a GEC yet that had what I consider to be a comfortable pull, although the two 23's I have are acceptable because of their large blades.

 

[dannyp]

Last thing I'll say, this is a SUPER subjective subject (super subjective subject,that doesn't look right). One guy or gals "3", may be anothers "6" and so on.

Nathan

My thoughts exactly, Nathan. My preference is about a 5, but I'm okay with anything from a 3 up to an 8. For reference, I would consider a 9 to be painful and a 10 to need another tool to open it.

 

[pertinux]

I've been browsing older threads about nail-breakers, and came across this gem by Ken Erickson:

"One of my measures of a production slipjoint when it comes to opening the blade/blades is, do I cringe when thinking about opening a certain blade, be it a single blade or multi-blade knife. I have even had some knives that I would avoid trying to open, for fear of rolling back my thumbnail. I hate when that happens! I happen to have a Case 83 pattern 3.5 balloon end/swell center whittler pocket worn version that I purchased recently that I avoid, dislike, have a hard time opening the secondary clip blade.

When building a knife, I try and think about it like this. A blade should not be a chore or a scary thing to open, it should be a pleasant experience."

Clearly, we all have different ranges and ideas about "pleasant," but now having a blade that I cringe when I think about trying to open, I appreciate Ken's description-- and goals-- all the more.

I'd add that a knife that is too soft, smooshy even, is also not a "pleasant experience," albeit in a non-scary way. I have a couple that fall into this category, and their unimpressive bearing in the pull department definitely influences my overall perceptions of them, to their detriment.

I love a good, strong pull, with a resounding SNAP upon full opening-- but only if I can get the blade "started" to begin with(!). So far, I think half-stops are more of a negative than a positive with a super-strong snap; easier to keep the blade moving through to Opened (or, alternately, to Closed) than to risk a bounce or catch at the half-stop.

I also appreciate the above insights into nick/long pull placement and the small but telling differences in leverage the placement affects.

~ P.

 

[pertinux]

I just read this post in the wayback machine:

I also find that grabbing the handle as far at the end as possible gives better leverage and makes a huge difference in how much pressure needs to be applied to the "nail nick" to pull out the blade. You wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference just looking at the slight shift in finger hold on the handle -- but it does.

And what do you know, I just tried holding my GEC 25s handle at the very end when attempting its wee clip blade, and it's making all the right kind of difference, ie, the difference between opening the blade and Not.

I'm suddenly all kinds of psyched.

~ P.

 

[gastonian]

I am happy with a pull anywhere from a 4 to a 9, but it’s the snap of the lockup that I really look for.

 

[uchinanchukg]

Last thing I'll say, this is a SUPER subjective subject (super subjective subject,that doesn't look right). One guy or gals "3", may be anothers "6" and so on.

Nathan

+1
Yeah, the 0-10 scale can be very subjective depending on the individual and also on how they open the blade.

It's still interesting to see how varied the responses are.

I like to also add that for knives with half-stops I like knives with softer pulls. When I was fondling Case Back Pocket at my local B&M shop I found that the strong pull + the half-stop made it a bit dangerous for my taste. That doesn't stop me from wanting it though

KG

 

[coffeecup]

Last thing I'll say, this is a SUPER subjective subject (super subjective subject,that doesn't look right). One guy or gals "3", may be anothers "6" and so on.

That is a problem. I've tried Goldberging together devices to quantifiably measure pull strength (most come out looking like an unnatural cross between a woodworking jig and an old-style trigger-pull scale). On clean properly-lubed knives, the pull to open the blade to about 1/3 open has run from about 1/2# to 43# or so. People seem to agree on an Opinel or similar friction-folder as a 0-1, but all agreement stops there. Most folks tend to reach for tools to pry the blades open around 20# or so, though they might describe that knife as having pull strength anywhere from 7-10 on the ol' 1-10 scale.

If--just for purposes of discussion--we pretend that 0-43# is the absolute range of knife pulls, and we pretend that other ergonomic factors (knife size, how the knife is held, location of the nail clip relative to the pivot pin, etc) don't interfere, we get a range like this:

0-1 (0-4.3#)
1-2 (4.3-8.6#)
2-3 (8.6-12.9#)
3-4 (12.9-17.2#)
4-5 (17.2-21.5#)
5-6 (21.5-25.8#)
6-7 (25.8-30.1#)
7-8 (30.1-34.4#)
8-9 (34.4-38.7#)
9-10 (38.7-43#)

Generally speaking, after measuring 40-50 knives actually carried for use, most people today tend to carry knives in the 2-4 range. This range encompasses most Swiss army knifes, original Schrade Old Timers, Camillus, Westerns, smaller original Remingtons/Pals (jacks, etc), most of the Case "user" knives I've measured, etc. Some of the original Remington 1123s, and larger folding hunters/similar sized knives produced in the period from roughly the last quarter 19th century-first quarter 20th century, will run in the lower 6-7 range but most fall into the 5-6 range.

Obviously, there are a ton of problems with my little mini-study, ranging from the one-off nature of the measuring device, problems with device design, small not-really-random sample selection and size (often exceeding small), etc. But since I wasn't trying to gather stats for a dissertation, it will do for now.

My impression is that most companies produced knives with fairly consistent pulls (but I don't know if this was an effect of design, production methods, customer demand, survival selection, some or all of these factors, or "none of the above"). In cases where I could get a relatively large sample, like Camillus, pull strengths outside a 3# range were unusual: they happened, but <5% of the time. (Again, there could be a lot of factors for that.)

Again, it is only my impression, but it seemed to me that the ranges started widening in the 1980s-1990s, and this trend has continued with the companies that remain. Ranges where the "high" for a particular make and model is double the "low" are not unheard of.

Now as to what I prefer, I'm currently carrying three folders, all measuring in the 3-4 range on the scale above.

 

[thatotherguy]

For me about a 6 is perfect. I will take anywhere from 4 to 7, but I do prefer the 5-6 range. This is for halfstops, cammed tangs IMO need a 7.5 or 8.